Post by kurgy on Feb 3, 2012 6:38:02 GMT -5
Hello everyone,
Well we did it! I know its a bit delayed, we got back to Sydney at the end of October after our 3month France extravaganza! We were welcomed home with the reality of 70 boxes that were shipped from Miami (where we lived for 2 years - our life in 70 boxes) and also the drudgery of getting back to work after a 3 month holiday!!!
I will just quickly post our itinerary, then in the next few weeks tell u more about where we stayed, ate and the highlights. I'm not that au fait with posting pics on the thread, but I will try and put it somewhere to share. All I can say is that we have the best little 2 year old traveller around! Okay we didnt get to go to that many museums or learn as much about the history of each place as I would have liked, but we were able to experience and appreciate France in a different and yet extremely enjoyable way.
11/7 - Miami to London
We were picked up at the airport by the lease company in our Pugeot 3008.
It was a brand new car & it was a left hand drive....eeek!
Stayed outside of London overnight with family friends.
Next stop was Bourton on the Water for 4 days.
En route we ate at Heston Blumenthal's Hinds Head Pub as we didnt think Sir (2yr old) would tolerate the lenghty degustation at the Fat Duck! It was average!
After Bourton, we spent 2 nights in Cambridge with friends then drove to Folkstone, got the car on the train and crossed the water to Calais!
HONFLEUR 18/7 (Mon) – 23/7 (Sat)
La Maison St Leonard - www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/honfleur/82565
lovely town! we even got to see the Bayeux tapestry...with the 2 year old! we gave him his first lollipop ever - he was occupied with it til the very end even after our faux pas of not bringing the pram with us, which would have kept him belted in his seat! it all worked out!
MONT ST MICHEL 23/7 (Sat) – 25/7 (Mon)
The Mouton Blanc
I think this was too much time spent there for us. We arrived there in the afternoon. We were bad parents and made Sir stay up late (10pm!) so we could do the evening tour of the monastery and it was brilliant! He loved it and there were no crowds. We were a bit worried about going during the day with the toddler after various reports on TA. We made the right decision, the next day even with the rain the crowds were thick. The climb up the steps was not as bad as reported and I'm quite sedentary, so it really wasnt that bad!
AMBOISE 25/7 (Mon) – 29/7 (Fri)
Villa Concorde www.villaconcorde-amboise-accommodation.com/
The apartment was right behind the chateau, we looked out and up, and there it was. Fantastic location. Would love to spend more time in the Loire.
We ended up ditching going to Futuroscope below even though we'd pre-paid for the room as the thought of lugging our bags just for one night, did not appeal. Luckily the apartment was available an extra day!
FUTUROSCOPE 29/7 (Fri) – 30/7 (Sat) - didnt eventuate
Ibis Poitiers Futuroscope
ARCACHON 30/7 (Sat) – 6/8 (Sat)
Residence Le Nathaniel - www.vrbo.com/25312
We met up with our friends from Cambridge for a bit of beach for a week - water was freezing!
AND what was meant to be a 4 hr drive turned into a 9 hour drive with the summer holiday traffic! It was just awful! The 2 year old fared well though...he's such a good boy!
SARLAT 6/8 (Sat) – 20/8 (Sat)
Le Presidial Apartment - www.sarlat.biz
An amazing 2 weeks in the Dordogne! Fantastic apartment and landlady!
TO ADD - My husband did a phone interview at 2am on our 3rd day there from Sydney - and he got a job!!! This made our holiday even more enjoyable as we knew we'd have income of some sort once we got to australia!
MONTPELLIER 20/8 (Sat) – 27/8 (Sat)
Apt Coquille - www.coquillemontpellier.com/
Montpellier was a nightmare to drive into! Even with GPS! It was just awful! We were staying in the old centre, so streets were one way and generally inaccesible as the old town is pedestrian only.
ST REMY 27/8 (Sat) – 3/9 (Sat)
www.homelidays.co.uk/st-remy-de-provence/house-villa-337669en1.htm
So we were meant to stay in St Remy for 1 week and Lourmarin for the 2nd week in Provence.....well, after we went to the Lourmarin house, we stayed one night and cleared out first thing the next morning. The place was musty, the WC smelt like a public toilet...I emptied a whole bottle of antibacterial spray and scrubbed and it still was awful...fortunately they only had our deposit...and after telling her we just couldnt live there - we moved back to St Remy - again luckily the house was free for the entire next week!!! oh we loved St Remy!
LOURMARIN 3/9 (Sat) – 10/9 (Sat) - never happened!
Le Bastidon @ La Luberonne
www.provence.guideweb.com/bb/luberonne/gite.html
MOUGINS 10/9 (Sat) – 15/9 (Thurs)
www.williamsmouginsflats.co.uk/index.html
Lovely little town above Cannes. Gorgeous flat with amazing vista. Cute little town.
Pretty much winding down after nearly 2 mths on the road. We decided to skip our next stop in Beaune and extended our stay an extra 3 days, the whole packing and unpacking the car was getting tiresome! Instead of staying the 4 days in Beaune, we decided we'd just break our trip there overnight (at an Ibis) en route to Paris (a 9hr drive). But as we were driving to Paris we decided to ring Thierry to find out if our apt was available and we'd just drive straight through....as we drove into Beaune, Thierry finally got back to us and said YES!!! Yay, no overnight in Beaune! So we arrived in Paris on Sunday night (a day before our booking) with me at the wheel...aaaarrrgghhh! I even managed to get a parking spot on the street for the night!
BEAUNE 15/9 (Thurs) – 19/9 (Mon) - never happened
CHEZ MARIE - www.chezmarieabeaune.com
PARIS 19/9 (Mon) – 15/10
Fleur de Lys - rue galande
My birthday is on the 16/10 - and I really wanted to spend it in Paris, but because of that whole no visa, only 3mth maximum stay thing, we moved our departure date back - to the 15th! When we realised in Calais that they didnt even stamp our passports, we immediately changed our flight to leave on the 19/10 - so I got an extra 4 days in Paris and spend my birthday there....unfortunately for my husband, whose birthday is on the 19/10 - his birthday was spent on the plane. But we were on the pointy end of the plane thanks to american express points - so dont feel too bad for him!
I've left the itinerary as our original trip so you could see that we chopped and changed along the way, and it all worked out.
It will take some time to do the rest, but I just wanted to share a little bit of the trip and thank all that gave me such sound advice, which I had originally ignored (ie dont stay one night in places with children!), but then followed in the end!
Thank you all you lovely francophiles!
I am already planning my next trip to Paris possibly in June for a month...it will of course be with my 3 yr old, who has turned into a bit of a francophile himself and still says s'il vous plait!
Well we did it! I know its a bit delayed, we got back to Sydney at the end of October after our 3month France extravaganza! We were welcomed home with the reality of 70 boxes that were shipped from Miami (where we lived for 2 years - our life in 70 boxes) and also the drudgery of getting back to work after a 3 month holiday!!!
I will just quickly post our itinerary, then in the next few weeks tell u more about where we stayed, ate and the highlights. I'm not that au fait with posting pics on the thread, but I will try and put it somewhere to share. All I can say is that we have the best little 2 year old traveller around! Okay we didnt get to go to that many museums or learn as much about the history of each place as I would have liked, but we were able to experience and appreciate France in a different and yet extremely enjoyable way.
11/7 - Miami to London
We were picked up at the airport by the lease company in our Pugeot 3008.
It was a brand new car & it was a left hand drive....eeek!
Stayed outside of London overnight with family friends.
Next stop was Bourton on the Water for 4 days.
En route we ate at Heston Blumenthal's Hinds Head Pub as we didnt think Sir (2yr old) would tolerate the lenghty degustation at the Fat Duck! It was average!
After Bourton, we spent 2 nights in Cambridge with friends then drove to Folkstone, got the car on the train and crossed the water to Calais!
HONFLEUR 18/7 (Mon) – 23/7 (Sat)
La Maison St Leonard - www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/honfleur/82565
lovely town! we even got to see the Bayeux tapestry...with the 2 year old! we gave him his first lollipop ever - he was occupied with it til the very end even after our faux pas of not bringing the pram with us, which would have kept him belted in his seat! it all worked out!
MONT ST MICHEL 23/7 (Sat) – 25/7 (Mon)
The Mouton Blanc
I think this was too much time spent there for us. We arrived there in the afternoon. We were bad parents and made Sir stay up late (10pm!) so we could do the evening tour of the monastery and it was brilliant! He loved it and there were no crowds. We were a bit worried about going during the day with the toddler after various reports on TA. We made the right decision, the next day even with the rain the crowds were thick. The climb up the steps was not as bad as reported and I'm quite sedentary, so it really wasnt that bad!
AMBOISE 25/7 (Mon) – 29/7 (Fri)
Villa Concorde www.villaconcorde-amboise-accommodation.com/
The apartment was right behind the chateau, we looked out and up, and there it was. Fantastic location. Would love to spend more time in the Loire.
We ended up ditching going to Futuroscope below even though we'd pre-paid for the room as the thought of lugging our bags just for one night, did not appeal. Luckily the apartment was available an extra day!
FUTUROSCOPE 29/7 (Fri) – 30/7 (Sat) - didnt eventuate
Ibis Poitiers Futuroscope
ARCACHON 30/7 (Sat) – 6/8 (Sat)
Residence Le Nathaniel - www.vrbo.com/25312
We met up with our friends from Cambridge for a bit of beach for a week - water was freezing!
AND what was meant to be a 4 hr drive turned into a 9 hour drive with the summer holiday traffic! It was just awful! The 2 year old fared well though...he's such a good boy!
SARLAT 6/8 (Sat) – 20/8 (Sat)
Le Presidial Apartment - www.sarlat.biz
An amazing 2 weeks in the Dordogne! Fantastic apartment and landlady!
TO ADD - My husband did a phone interview at 2am on our 3rd day there from Sydney - and he got a job!!! This made our holiday even more enjoyable as we knew we'd have income of some sort once we got to australia!
MONTPELLIER 20/8 (Sat) – 27/8 (Sat)
Apt Coquille - www.coquillemontpellier.com/
Montpellier was a nightmare to drive into! Even with GPS! It was just awful! We were staying in the old centre, so streets were one way and generally inaccesible as the old town is pedestrian only.
ST REMY 27/8 (Sat) – 3/9 (Sat)
www.homelidays.co.uk/st-remy-de-provence/house-villa-337669en1.htm
So we were meant to stay in St Remy for 1 week and Lourmarin for the 2nd week in Provence.....well, after we went to the Lourmarin house, we stayed one night and cleared out first thing the next morning. The place was musty, the WC smelt like a public toilet...I emptied a whole bottle of antibacterial spray and scrubbed and it still was awful...fortunately they only had our deposit...and after telling her we just couldnt live there - we moved back to St Remy - again luckily the house was free for the entire next week!!! oh we loved St Remy!
LOURMARIN 3/9 (Sat) – 10/9 (Sat) - never happened!
Le Bastidon @ La Luberonne
www.provence.guideweb.com/bb/luberonne/gite.html
MOUGINS 10/9 (Sat) – 15/9 (Thurs)
www.williamsmouginsflats.co.uk/index.html
Lovely little town above Cannes. Gorgeous flat with amazing vista. Cute little town.
Pretty much winding down after nearly 2 mths on the road. We decided to skip our next stop in Beaune and extended our stay an extra 3 days, the whole packing and unpacking the car was getting tiresome! Instead of staying the 4 days in Beaune, we decided we'd just break our trip there overnight (at an Ibis) en route to Paris (a 9hr drive). But as we were driving to Paris we decided to ring Thierry to find out if our apt was available and we'd just drive straight through....as we drove into Beaune, Thierry finally got back to us and said YES!!! Yay, no overnight in Beaune! So we arrived in Paris on Sunday night (a day before our booking) with me at the wheel...aaaarrrgghhh! I even managed to get a parking spot on the street for the night!
BEAUNE 15/9 (Thurs) – 19/9 (Mon) - never happened
CHEZ MARIE - www.chezmarieabeaune.com
PARIS 19/9 (Mon) – 15/10
Fleur de Lys - rue galande
My birthday is on the 16/10 - and I really wanted to spend it in Paris, but because of that whole no visa, only 3mth maximum stay thing, we moved our departure date back - to the 15th! When we realised in Calais that they didnt even stamp our passports, we immediately changed our flight to leave on the 19/10 - so I got an extra 4 days in Paris and spend my birthday there....unfortunately for my husband, whose birthday is on the 19/10 - his birthday was spent on the plane. But we were on the pointy end of the plane thanks to american express points - so dont feel too bad for him!
I've left the itinerary as our original trip so you could see that we chopped and changed along the way, and it all worked out.
It will take some time to do the rest, but I just wanted to share a little bit of the trip and thank all that gave me such sound advice, which I had originally ignored (ie dont stay one night in places with children!), but then followed in the end!
Thank you all you lovely francophiles!
I am already planning my next trip to Paris possibly in June for a month...it will of course be with my 3 yr old, who has turned into a bit of a francophile himself and still says s'il vous plait!
I can't imagine such a long trip with a little one, but obviously it really worked for you.....what an experience! 
An exalt to you for making those 3 months happen. 
hahahha